[The Great Yazoo]

They would own the mom and pop store.

Moms and pops competing with Wal-Mart on the basis of price is a fool's errand. Moms and pops can compete on the basis of service and knowledgable employees, however.

I see it being done every day.

[durasell]

Just speaking for myself, if I'm in the market for a commodity-type item, I'm buying based on price. At this point, all types of items are falling into the commodity category, such as pocket calculators, dish washing liquid, fax machines and garbage cans.

If I want to buy, say, a $1,000 Herman Miller chair I'd go to the mom & pop store. But I don't buy many $1,000 chairs per year. All told I spend far more than $1,000 a year on commodity type items.